Washburn professor to lecture on Paraguay art at Kauffman Museum

NORTH NEWTON, KAN. – Art from Paraguay will be focus of an illustrated lecture in the Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum series at Bethel College’s Kauffman Museum.

Reinhild Kauenhoven Janzen, professor of art history at Washburn University, Topeka, will be the featured speaker in the museum auditorium Sunday, March 14, at 3:30 p.m. The program is free and open to the public.

Janzen served as guest curator for “Images of Paraguay,” the first-ever joint exhibition between the Carriage Factory Gallery in downtown Newton and Kauffman Museum on the Bethel College campus. “Images of Paraguay” is currently on display at both locations.

Janzen’s lecture will cover the 200 years of history represented in “Images of Paraguay.” The artistic styles and physical materials transformed into art are vast as well, ranging from natural materials used by indigenous peoples to painted wood images of Catholic saints to contemporary artists working in steel, photography and oils.

“It is my hope that the visitor to the exhibition will find insights and understanding of Paraguay’s people, history and culture though its arts,” Janzen said.

She will trace the origin of the exhibition project, originally conceived to celebrate cultural exchanges between Kansas and Paraguay through the Partners of the Americas program. Kansas-Paraguay Partners has promoted friendship, collaboration and mutual learning since 1968.

Pieces shown at Kauffman Museum and Carriage Factory Gallery are drawn from individual members of Kansas-Paraguay Partners as well as public collections in Kansas, including Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University, Holmes Museum of Anthropology at Wichita State University and Hays Public Library.

Admission to Kauffman Museum is free the afternoon of the program, which is supported by the Carriage Factory Gallery, Kauffman Museum, Kansas Arts Commission, the Kansas Humanities Council and Kansas-Paraguay Partners. Other programs will be held March 21 at Carriage Factory Gallery and April 25 at Kauffman Museum.

For more information about the exhibition and programs, contact Rachel Pannabecker at Kauffman Museum, 316-283-1612 or by e-mail.

Carriage Factory Gallery is located at 128 E. Sixth Street, Newton, and is open Tuesday-Friday, noon-5 p.m., and Saturday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Admission to the Carriage Factory Gallery is free. Kauffman Museum is located on the Bethel College campus at 27th and North Main, North Newton, and is open Tuesday-Friday 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, 1:30-4:30 p.m. (closed Mondays and major holidays). Admission to Kauffman Museum is normally $4 for adults, $2 for children 6-16 and free to members and children age five and under.

Back to News NORTH NEWTON, KAN. – Art from Paraguay will be focus of an illustrated lecture in the Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum series at Bethel College’s Kauffman Museum. Reinhild Kauenhoven Janzen, professor of art history at Washburn University, Topeka, will …